Sunday, August 27, 2006

Weekend Herb Blogging #47

Weekend Herb Blogging returns to Kalyn's Kitchen this week and this time I'm taking a closer look at carrots.

carrots

Well, maybe that's too close of a look. These certainly aren't the most photogenic carrots but they are good for you. They won't improve your eyesight but they do supply us with lots of Vitamin A, which in a round about way, is needed to maintain eye health. It also helps keep our skin clear and fight off infection. All up, there are very good reasons to be eating them.

I tend to use carrots very regularly - they are a staple but they always seem to be used in the same ways. I suppose you could say when it comes to carrots, I'm in a rut.

So I thought I'd take the opportunity to utilise these plain janes and try something new with them. The answer came while scanning through Stephanie Alexander's tome The Cook's Companion. I came upon quite a delicious sounding recipe for "Indian-style carrot fritters." A fairly straight forward recipe that sees grated carrot flavoured with cumin, coriander, turmeric and cayenne pepper and mixed in a besan (chick-pea flour) and beer batter. The end result was a much more attractive look, if I do say so myself.

carrot fritters

Spiced Carrot Fritters

½ teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoon ground cumin
1½ teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
150 grams Besan flour, sifted
½ cup beer
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup shredded carrot
6 spring onions, finely chopped
2 coriander plants, roots and leaves, finely chopped
oil, to shallow fry
fresh coriander leaves, for garnish
sour cream, to serve

Sift the flour, salt and dry spices into a bowl. Stir well to ensure the spices have been mixed through. Add the beaten egg and beer and mix again. Then stir in the grated carrot, spring onions and fresh coriander.

mixture

Use a non-stick fry pan and coat with a layer of oil - I'm going to shallow fry these instead of deep frying. Drop spoonfuls of the mix into the hot oil and spread it out to form a rough circle shape. I've made these about 5cm/2 inches in diameter - you can make them larger or smaller if you like. Flip them over when you see bubbles forming on the surface of each fritter and continue cooking until it's golden. Drain on paper towels to remove any excess oil.

ready to eat

Serve them when they are still hot with sour cream and a sprinkling of fresh coriander leaves. They are an ideal size for use as finger food.

fritter close up

When you open them up there's a lovely contrast of textures - with the grated carrot having softened slightly and the fragrance of the fresh coriander and spring onion coming through. There's a nice level of spice that shouldn't really be a problem to anyone. Using beer lifts the fritters and makes them delightfully light and fluffy and thanks to the combination of besan and turmeric they have the most wonderful saffron hue.

Tagged with :

9 comments

  1. I actually love the closeup carrot photo. The fritters sound great too. You do come up with the most interesting things! Nice job.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm with Kalyn, the close-up is gorgeous! I absolutely adore carrots (I start every day with a fresh glass of carrot juice!), so thankyou for providing another recipe to use with one of my favourite veggies :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Kalyn - and the carrots thank you too, I might have been a bit harsh towards them

    Thanks Ellie - hope you enjoy the fritters!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very interesting recipe for me. I love carrots!

    paz

    ReplyDelete
  5. Haalo! You've done it again. I am literally drooling over this one! I love all your fritter receipes, but this seems to beat them all!

    ReplyDelete
  6. These fritters look absolutely delicious! I've also been in a "carrot rut" and these sound like just the thing to help me out!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Haalo,
    Carrot fritters looks great.Photos are marvelous.
    We call it as "Bhajji" and adding egg is new to me.
    i am going to try these fritters with carrot.
    Thanks for sharing.
    Vineela

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks Paz!

    Thanks Meeta - these are very easy to eat, probably too easy

    Thanks Nicole - the fritters should help!

    Thanks Vineela for the information - I usually only associated bhaji with onions.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you so much Sher - hope you enjoy making (and eating) them!

    ReplyDelete

© Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once | All rights reserved.
BLOG TEMPLATE HANDCRAFTED BY pipdig